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Friday, July 24, 2009

Okay, this isn't exactly Wok Inn but it was still pretty darn good! I used the leftover chicken breast that I had from the honey-lime chicken recipe for simplicity. I couldn't find lo mein noodles so I ended up using linguine. One of the best parts of this recipe is you can use whatever veggies that you have. In this case, I had onions, a green bell pepper, and some broccoli on hand.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Wow!!! This is a extremely simple and delicious marinade! I grilled the chicken on the George Foreman (we don't own a real grill, yet) and cut it up to serve over a salad. Give this marinade a try, you won't use the bottled stuff ever again :).

Sunday, July 12, 2009

I have a confession to make. I have a slight love affair with SOUP! This is the receipe that started my love for cooking it. And, ever since, I've scoured the internet for different soup recipes to try to make and restaurant soups just never quite seemed to measure up anymore. Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall I'm making some sort of soup in this house! They can be relatively healthy (this one is!) and by making it at home, you help control the salt content. Plus, most soups make LARGE batches and freeze well for quick meals later. (Note: if you want to freeze this one, DO NOT add the noodles or it'll suck up all your delicious broth! Only add noodles when ready to serve!). Give this one a try - it's chock full of veggies and my absolute favorite!

A little bit behind on posting recent recipe trials. Chicken Parmesan is one of Chris' absolute favorite meals. Unfortunately for him, I have yet to find a recipe that I am happy with...probably because I don't like to fry things and that's the only way you can get a truly crisp chicken breast.

This sub version comes from the super fab Rachel Ray. I forgot to buy ground chicken/turkey so it ended being more of a meatball (used 1lb ground beef and 1/2 lb spicy pork sausage) sub. I'm sure had I done it "correctly" it'd taste delicious but this version was great, too. An accelerated version of my normal (Grandma Barrante's) version of meatballs and sauce.

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place chicken in a bowl and season with grill seasoning. Add egg, half of the grated cheese, bread crumbs, parsley, and a serious drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil to the bowl. Mix the meat and form 12 large meatballs. Squish the balls to flatten them a bit like mini oval meatloaves. Be careful not to form the balls wider than your bread. The flattened balls will stay put on your sub, no roll-aways! Bake the meatballs 15 minutes until golden and firm. Switch the broiler on.

While the meatballs bake, heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and garlic and cook 5 minutes then remove the cloves. Add crushed red pepper flakes then tomatoes and stir in the chicken stock. Season the sauce with salt and pepper and simmer 10 minutes, adjust seasonings and stir in the basil. Reserve a extra sauce for dipping on dinner table.

Remove the meat from oven and loosen with a thin spatula. Turn meat balls in sauce.

Cut sub rolls making the bottom a little deeper than the top. Hollow out a little bread and lightly toast the sub rolls under broiler. Fill the bottoms of the breads with flattened balls and sauce. Combine the provolone and remaining Parmigiano. Cover the subs with cheese and return to broiler to melt the cheese until golden.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Anyone that knows Chris knows that he LOVES sweets. Specifically, anything with peanut butter. (Though in reality, just anything sweet!) I saw this online in a blog that I normally read and thought this would be something he may like so I put my domestication skills to work and baked these cookies.

Sadly, Chris thought they "weren't peanut buttery enough" and he was a bit disappointed because for some reason he thought they would have "molten peanut butter centers". His brother Justin, however, ate 3 of them in like...a minute. If I were to make this again, I'd up the peanut butter or maybe even add a mini Reese cup to the center for his tastes. Personally, I thought they were delicious and tasted like giant things of Puppy Chow! :)